Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-05-14
SMALL FARMS AND IRRIGATION.
Some Suggestions for Farmers and Boom.
Makers to Consider.

l O<h<AAA IAkbNuSJ AMI
Some Suggestions for Farmers and Boom
Makers to Consider.
EDS. REcoRD- UNION: Several sensible
men have complimentei me by their APP
| prevail of what l said in regard to rail-
roads to points around the city of Sacra-
mento. But by the time the work is fairly
portrayed it will be found to require Sc
much money and labor that compliments
will be expensive bargains if converted to
such. Any one can see that railroads to
Brighton, Florin, Walnut Grove, ETC., in
volye revolution in farming methods A
road to Brighton would have nothing to do
without an increase of inhabitants between
the city and Brighton. The railroad from
| here to Florin is now not patroniZed to its
| full capacity of performance. The popula-
| ton and products between Sacramento and
these places must be increased, and all the
| business multiplied to support these
changes. / will not stop to argue which
must precede and which shall follow Es-
tablish the roads and population will fol-
low; fill up the land with population and
industry and railroads will follow.
The great change that is to take place is
| simply evolution-revolution in our ideas
| and revolution in our practice. Happily
| for US the levers have already been placed
and the fulcrums planted that must do the
work. That work is the segregation of our
| lands into small holdings. 1t will not even
now be an easy matter TO get people to di-
vide their lands. Tell them that twenty
| houses-beautiful farm houses-embow-
eredswith shade and fruit trees and teem-
| ing vines, will take the place of the one
mnnSl0n-nnW tho colo nd or
the beauty being manifest, the benefit to
his mind will still be obscure. Yet such is
the proposition the farmer must act upon,
and do 1t now. Each farmer must act for
himself; for he must not wait for his neigh
Dor to act, and then get the benefit of the
rise of property before he will subdivide his
tract. He must divide now, and sell part
now and part as property rises by virtue of
improvements and increase of population.
The people from here to Florin, say, must
meet and agree to subdivide their lands
the first tier fairly facing the railroad and
roads between the subdivisions reaching
out to the second tier, and continue through
the second to the third tier, and even the
fourth, if necessary. Even then a large
part OF the people will be far enough from
the railroad to require county roads and
market wagons in immense numbers.
Bat, having talked with some leading
men about the question Of subdivision, and
having ascertained that all will gladly sub
divide and sell, too, it NAV be asked if the
whole question is not already settled. |
say no.
In the present condition of affairs the
average American cannot make a living on
20 or 40 acres of land. Our crop from 40
acres, and especially from 20 acres, will not
do lt-that is, our ordinary crop, say of
hay, grain, fruit, etc. To make living off
of 20 acres requires close work, and by the
ordinary method one man can cultivate 40
or even so acres of land.
When, then, is man to put in his time
after blowing over his 20 acres? Well, he
has as little employment under new sys-
TENS that was wanting under the old He
must water his 20 acres, which he did not
do with his 100 acres. Here is something
nearly new but still most of the farmers
have secured water, as their windmills and
beauty spots of fruit and shade trees tes-
tiiy. But don't get agitated, you farmers,
because your whole $50 acres must have
water just as your little parcel around your
residence has had You have given the
land trial in that little house parcel, and
it has proven the capabilities of the soil if
reinforced with water
And now you seek a shelter from the
coming blow. You ask how many wind
mills at $3.50 each will irrigate 100 acres
in the same perfect manner that the one or
two or three Will have watered the parcel
at the house and garden. Well, | believe
you cannot shield yourself from the blow.
The land must be irrigated at any rate.
Of course it will take fortune to erect the
wind-mills, and another fortune to distrib-
ute the water, and another fortune to
gather the fruit and market it, and alto
gether 1t is too much. So, then, YOU must
subdivide. That will not be unpleasant,
for you will at least get a good price for
your land.
dare say that all who read this faint
sketch even will see that we are in the
midst OF great embarrassment; in fact,
that IS just where we are now, and TO ex-
tricate ourselves from this embarrassment
is the task before u.s. The orchardist Reed
has changed the method of irrigation, if
we are rightly informed, from wind-m mills to
the steam-hoisting works. And this is not
a hopeless method for the farmer for this
reason, even if large ditch company
should tomorrow bring water facing your
railroad frontage Ito keep up the ideal YOU
would have to pay % cents per miners
inch for every twenty-four hours use of
water, under a giCen amount of pressure
Cor rather paid for amount of pressure).
The water can be raised from the river, or
tiC 3iOuid yOu, ny ana us
trlbuted over the soil for that amount,
Now we have come to the question that
will make everything a reality VIII YOU
bring water for irrigation to your 20-acre
tracts, in bitches and in fumes? This is
the first thing; this the essential thing:
this the thing without which even the rail
road will be an incumbrance Nothing
will convert the plains into gardens, or
chards and vineyards but water; water at
the doors water in abundance; water
with rights easy and well secured, and
secured for all time With this the plains
will blossom as the rose; the desert become
a fruitful field.
The water can be brought from the
American river. 1t should be brought from
the falls at Folsom. Just the amount of
capital required will be learned by little
civil engineering. But it is certain that
good mining company would fiume it in
three months if there were bed of gold to
be extracted and then the flume might
float away in the next high water, and no.
body care for its loss. What the miner has
done the farmer can do-must do. If the
immense fume and ditch shall be with
foreIhought constructed so as to divide the
flood of waters in the time of danger, of
course it will be well for the city of Sacra-
mento-even with her strongest levee
] hope that no one will say that | pre-
tend that nothing can be done without
water | shall not discuss the question of
whether trees and vines do not go deeper
down without water than with it, | will
answer with the Butte county pamphle,eeIs,
" that you raise everything with water
am quite sure if you come to raising three
crops of peas on one acre in single sea
son that water would help some and so
with a small army of other products
known tn the farmer
Well, what practical thing is to grow out
of this discussion Does the farmer ask
me if l have proposed the question to a
representative of the railroad company to
know; if they (the farmers) will subdivide
their lands on each side of the railroad, for
three or four tiers in depth, into twenty or
forty-acre parcels, all the way to Florin
if they (the farmers will multiply their
powers of production by irrigation and
fertilization if they will change their
brown, and for many months in the year
their parched acres, into teeming orchards,
vineyards and fields of vegetables and
fruits If am asked whetherI have pro-
posed that, as this is done, they will put on